54 ways to increase sales like a rock star

54 Ways

to Increase Sales Like a Rock Star

By Gary Sanchez www.garyasanchez.com

Who the HECK is Gary Sanchez?

I’m a veteran consumer products and retail

marketing leader, cover rock-band drummer and

outdoor enthusiast. After almost 20 years of

working for large companies, I remembered that

the long term professional goal I stated in my

business school application was to help small

business owners grow companies. I do that by

helping them increase sales with decisive marketing

programs. Building new programs and seeing them

come to life and work magic is what I love most

about marketing. Being of service to small business

owners is what I love most about working.

My nickname is “Cheese” (a derivative of San-

cheeeeese) and that’s what my friends call me. I

share that because my goal is to help people have

more fun getting their marketing created. As I

like to say, “If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it

wrong.” And if you can’t have fun with a guy

named Cheese who writes about marketing in the

context of rock and roll, then when are you going

to have fun?

54 Ways to Increase Sales www.garyasanchez.com 415 407-8345

http://www.garyasanchez.com/

Legalese Disclaimer The author of 54 Ways to Increase Sales Like a Rock Star cannot be held responsible for

business, personal or emotional losses achieved by following any advice within this e-book.

While I am sharing my best advice, I am doing so without explicit knowledge of your business or your

business circumstances. As always, you should take responsibility for your own choices before starting

any new business program, digital or otherwise.

Copyright I am sharing this 54 Ways to Increase Sales Like a Rock Star under the Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs. Feel free to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work but

please give me credit as the person who made you feel it was worthwhile enough to share. My social

media handle for twitter, facebook and LinkedIn is “garyasanchez.” Also, please don’t sell this book

and don’t alter, transform or build upon the work without my permission.

Affiliate Links I do not have any recommendations to other providers, be them information, software or affiliate

links in this document.

Photo Attributions I’m providing attributions to all photos I’ve used (all but one from Flickr) on the last slide. Thank you

photographers for allowing your work to be shared!

54 Ways to Increase Sales www.garyasanchez.com 415 407-8345


54 Ways to Increase Sales

CONTENTS

ROLL

Customer Acquisition Ideas / 22

RATTLE

Loyalty Building Ideas / 13

SHAKE

Upsell / Cross-Sell Ideas / 6

BACK STAGE

Warming Up / 1

PHOTO CREDITS / 36

ENCORE

Closing Notes / 35

www.garyasanchez.com 415 407-8345


BACK STAGE

www.garyasanchez.com 54 Ways to Increase Sales - 1 415 407-8345

“Get out from that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans

Get out from that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans

Well, roll my breakfast 'cause I'm a hungry man

I said shake, rattle and roll




Well, you never do nothin' to save your doggone soul”

~ Bill Haley And The Comets

How cool is it that a band is named “The Comets?” To me, the word “comet” conjures up a body

racing across the sky that is emitting a visible and beautiful display of light. And in their classic

song, Shake, Rattle and Roll, Bill Haley says “get out from that kitchen and rattle those pots and

pans.” Both of these ideas are about taking action to create change and a desirable outcome.

That’s the essence of good marketing.

But Bill Haley and the Comets didn’t write the song. It was originally recorded by Big Joe Turner.

That’s one reason I like to frame marketing in terms of music. None of the ideas I’m about to

share are originally my own. But like Bill Haley, I hope I can help you identify the ones you can

“cover” to make your signature song on your way to increasing sales.

Click to Listen


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtPNZXpedyI

BACK STAGE

54 Ways to Increase Sales - 2 www.garyasanchez.com 415 407-8345

There’s a big difference, however, between

merely covering a song and turning that song

into a hit that makes you a rock star.

So how do you become a rock star? Aside

from the most common advice of “practice,

practice, practice,” there are a few skills,

behaviors and attitudes that can help you along

the way. My suggestion is to focus on

developing five of these, at least to start:

Learn to sing or play an instrument –

How do you learn to sing or play an

instrument? You take lessons from somebody

more advanced than you are.

It’s the same with marketing. Find an

advisor, a coach or consultant and commit to

weekly conversations about marketing. Read

about marketing, such as this eBook. At the

very least, find yourself a peer to “practice”

with and discuss marketing news and how it

could relate to each of your businesses. You

can’t get better at anything without learning the

fundamentals, exploring new techniques and

practicing them.

Play some local shows – No band is ever

booked as a headliner at Madison Square

Garden without having first paid its dues and

proven it can attract an audience. Performing at

small venues, testing a variety of songs and song

arrangements, learning how to create crowd

excitement are all skills learned by rock bands

coming up the ranks.

It’s the same with marketing. Early on, try

some new marketing ideas and test them. If

they don’t increase sales, rework them until

they do, or scrap them and pick a different one

until you’ve worked out a program that’s a hit

with your customers.


BACK STAGE


Love it! – Jimi Hendrix is quoted as having

said “Music is my religion.” U2’s front man

Bono has said “As a rock star, I have two

instincts, I want to have fun, and I want to

change the world. I have a chance to do both.”

Passion, an ability to connect through the

emotions of music, and the exhilaration of

performing to audiences often drive rock stars

to share their craft and talents.

It’s the same with marketing. Sell

something you love. When you’re proud of

your products or services, you will understand

the benefits they give you, and in return, the

benefits they offer your customers. When this

is the case, you’ll be able to communicate the

benefits more effectively and with passion. It

will come naturally to you to want to share it,

to offer it, to sell it, heck, even sing about it.

Be unique – Whether it’s the voice, the

wardrobe, the hair style, the makeup (a la KISS),

the dance moves, or the message, all rock stars

are unique. They’re different. They’re

memorable. As with the Sex Pistols, they may

not be enjoyable to all audiences, but they’ve

found a way to be viewed as special to their

core, rabid, money paying fans.

It’s the same with marketing. Your

products or services need to be different AND

desirable in order to gain rock star status. It

could be your communicated benefits, your

packaging, your customer service, your follow

up, or your ability to teach, train and inspire in

your category that sets you apart from your

competition. However you do it, you should be

striving to answer the question, “Why should

somebody buy from me?”


BACK STAGE


Always be creating, promoting and performing – The rock stars who have endured the

longest have also created an extensive library of music and albums. Often, in the early days, they

embarked on multi-year tours to connect with their fans and reach as many people as possible.

When they are between tours or recording new music, they find ways to stay connected to their

fans through news, special appearances, and promotions.

It’s the same with marketing. Once your business has gained traction and a loyal group of

customers, you should seek to maximize your stardom. Do this by continuing to connect with

them with new products that meet their needs, with incredible “performances” and customer

service they remember and want to share with their friends, and with new promotions and

marketing programs that solidify your relationship with them.

While these are five behaviors and attitudes that help you become closer to being a rock star,

what are some more practical ideas? “How do I increase my sales, Gary?”

Whether you have a commodity product in a highly competitive industry, or are fortunate enough

to have a highly differentiated product with little competition, I believe there are always ways to

increase your sales.


BACK STAGE

You see, ideas are never the bottleneck. Making choices, developing a plan and taking action are

the bottlenecks.

To hammer this point home, I’ve compiled this list of 54 Ways to Increase Sales. Not all of the

ideas will work for your business (since I don’t know what your business is yet), but I hope that

after reviewing the list, they will inspire you to take the steps needed to select one or two, and at

the very least, test them or “practice” them.

Now on to a few house rules.

First, some of the ideas I share will seem similar to other ideas. That’s because they are. Don’t

freak out. Don’t email me and claim that I cheated you out of a handful of ideas or accuse me of

taking the lazy way out. The goal of this book is to help you explore how to identify new ways to

grow your sales. Sometimes learning about an idea that has been explained slightly differently will

make all the difference in your ability to learn it.



BACK STAGE

Second, these ideas were compiled based on my

experience as a B2C / consumer marketing

manager. The majority of my marketing

experience is in consumer products (picture

Kingsford Charcoal, Pine-Sol household cleaner,

Formula 409 spray cleaner or Del Monte

canned tomato sauce) and in retail (picture

Peet’s Coffee & Tea or CocoaBella Chocolates).

Having said that, I do believe that many of these

ideas are applicable to B2B as well.

For instance, a professional services firm like a

dentist or accounting office could follow idea

#50. A solo-preneur such as a coach or

consultant could use idea #49. A B2B firm

could easily use idea #54. And there are more

ideas that cut across different business types.

54 Ways to Increase Sales - 6

These ideas are meant to be transferable to

many different types of businesses because the

principles of customer acquisition, of building

customer loyalty, and of cross selling and

upselling are generally the same.

That’s why I’m categorizing each idea into one

of three buckets. I find these buckets to be

helpful ways for me to think about growth

strategies, with each having slightly different

economics. If this is slightly confusing, I

apologize. Read my blog post titled “There are

only three ways to grow sales” in the shaded

box on the next page This book is my follow

up to that post with less theoretical concepts

and more practical examples.


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BACK STAGE

From There Are Only 3 Ways to Grow sales

“From a mathematical point of view, there are only

three ways to grow sales:

1) Increase customer count

2) Increase purchase frequency

3) Increase average purchase price

This falls out from the basic equation of:

# customers X purchase frequency X average purchase

price = TOTAL sales

If you start with any one of these three goals in mind, it

will help you more clearly establish strategies to help

you grow, rather than chasing the latest trend or tactics

which may or may not lead to growth. Always

remember to start with a strategy before choosing your

tools or tactics to achieve it, rather than the other way

around. It will force you to be more rigorous around

your planning, more efficient with your limited

resources, and more effective when you implement

your programs.”


So what I’ve done for this eBook is to take the

three ways of growing revenue, and translated

them into more common and familiar marketing

terms. I’ve also reordered them going forward

to fit within the rock and roll theme:

3) = Shake: Increasing average purchase price.

This works when you upsell to larger or more

expensive items, or cross-sell more than one

item.

2) = Rattle: Increasing purchase frequency

which is similar to increasing loyalty.

1) = Roll: Increasing customer count is the

same as acquiring new customers or

growing traffic.


http://www.garyasanchez.com/there-are-only-three-ways-to-grow-revenue


BACK STAGE

If you pick one of these strategies, it often forces you to think of who you are selling to (your

target market) in very different terms. When you think of your customer differently, you can

usually start to see that they have different beliefs about your products and this will affect how you

communicate with them, what benefits matter most to them, and where you reach them.

Third, I’ll try to give you specific examples of how the idea would work. Some ideas will be drawn

from my own personal experience, some will be drawn from case studies I have observed. A very

small number will be drawn from my imagination of how I think it could work.

Fourth, if you read an idea and need to understand more about it, by all means, send me an email

and ask [gary at garyasanchez dot com]. My goal is to help you create a thriving and rocking

business. Building new programs and seeing them come to life and work magic is what I love most

about marketing.

Ultimately, the goal of this book is to help you see new paths to success and to help you

implement change. After all, if you don’t change your behavior, you’re never going to change your

results.

OK, enough of the house rules, and brown M&Ms.


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SHAKE


“Oh shake shake shake, shake shake shake,

Shake your booty! Shake your booty!”

-- K.C. & the Sunshine Band

Your customer has found the perfect purchase and is ready to pay you. Now’s the time for you to

focus on increasing the purchase amount through upselling and cross-selling techniques.

Upselling is convincing your customer to spend more money than they were originally considering.

It can be accomplished by persuading her to buy a more expensive option.

Cross-selling is convincing your customer to buy something in addition to what they originally

came to you to buy, such as accessories or add-on / related product sales.

In both cases, you are attempting to increase the total value of the purchase transaction. If you only

take one idea away from this section, it should be “sell a party instead of a cake.”

The following ideas are meant to help you identify ways to be shaking your booty all the way to the

bank.

Click to Listen


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3fZuW-aJsg


SHAKE


Bundle pricing - also known as “The Happy Meal” approach. Assemble a

collection of products and offer it as a bundle and at a price that would be 10-25%

less than if they had bought each item separately. Perhaps its shoes and six pair of

socks. Maybe it’s a gift box or gift basket of three different flavored chocolate bars,

a tin of cocoa and a bag of chocolate covered raisins. Maybe it’s a night at your

hotel plus a day pass to the local ski resort. Offer a package of products that will

entice your customers to spend more.

Sell accessories - If you’re a retailer selling running shoes, you probably already

sell items that are useful when used along with your shoes, such as socks, and

colored shoe strings, but what other products could you sell that would make

running more enjoyable? Perhaps headlamps for nighttime runners? If you

wholesale to retailers, what could you co-promote in the store to add to the

purchase bundle? When I was at Kingsford Charcoal, we promoted meat sales,

BBQ sauce sales and even beer sales via cross-ruff coupons.

1

2


Cross-promote - This is identical to #2, selling accessories, it’s just being

proactive about it rather than waiting for them to buy it. Again, using my

Kingsford example, when somebody is having a barbeque, they need more than

charcoal. They need lighter fluid, they need meat, they need buns and condiments,

they need beverages. Promote all of these items together and you’ll sell more. Sell

a party rather than just selling a cake.

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SHAKE


Raise your prices - Most people fear raising their prices because of concerns

that their customers will complain and stop buying from them. But there are two

magical ways to approach this. 1) Restate the value proposition: At Peet’s Coffee,

I was able to charge more for Holiday Blend coffee by putting it in a special red,

decorative holiday bag. I was also able to raise prices of pastries by relaunching

the segment as Artisan Baked Goods and better communicating that the items

were baked hours before delivery to the stores. If you manufacture a product,

better packaging, a new flavor or communicating more important benefits can

allow you to achieve higher prices. 2) Implement line pricing: At Del Monte Foods,

sweet pickles were priced differently than dill pickles or pickle chips. By working

out the math based on average unit sales, I was able to move all the same sizes to

the same price point in a way that delivered higher sales to the entire line of

pickles. .

4


New products - As alluded to in #4, new products are a great way to “hide” price

increases. Deliver greater value or stronger benefits than existing items and

charge for the added benefits. If you run a restaurant, introduce a new line of

desserts and take a higher margin on them than other desserts. If you have a

special Holiday product or service that will only be available for 2 months, charge

more for it being special. At CocoaBella Chocolates, I was able to charge $85 for a

collection made up of only Bay Area chocolate makers when the same sized

collection of European chocolates sells for $60.

5

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SHAKE


Larger sizes - In some product categories, all you have to do is replace one size

with a larger size. When I worked on Pine-Sol, our largest customer, Wal-Mart,

wanted us to lower the price of our 28 oz. product. Rather than do that, we

showed them that the biggest users of the product used a TON of the product (I

guess they really did love that pine scent) and we convinced them to replace 28 oz.

with our higher priced 40 oz. bottles. At Christopher Elbow Chocolates, I wanted

to offer a sleeve of 10 chocolate bars.

6


Volume discounts – Often you can encourage customers to buy larger sizes, or

more units (e.g., ounces, hours, widgets) if you give them a discount on the per unit

price. More realistically, however, is that you will probably be rewarding your best

customers, those who buy lots of what you sell. High volume customers aren’t

likely to be a large percentage of your customers, but following the Pareto

Principle,* they are often your most profitable customers.

7

Pareto Principle Also known as the 80 / 20 rule, this rule “states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects

come from 20% of the causes.” When applied to your business, this often means that only 20% of

your customers generate 80% of your sales or profits. If this is the case in your business, chances

are that they are customers who are high volume purchasers.

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SHAKE


Subscription service – Subscriptions were pioneered by magazines and

newspapers and have become a popular way for software companies to sell access

to their programs. Do you have a product that people buy throughout the year? If

you’re a restaurant, you could presell 12 dinners for the price of 10, redeemable

once a month. This is different than a punch card program where you give

somebody a free meal after purchasing 10 in that you get all the sales now instead

of waiting for later, and your customer gets the benefit now. Subscription services

not only give you more sales sooner, but it helps forecasting, cash flow and

inventory management. Dollar Shave Club (dollarshaveclub.com) has built its

entire business on selling a tangible product via subscriptions. Selling a pre-loaded

debit card at a retailer is another example.

Sell related services – This could be a service that works with your physical

product and isn’t the focus of where you started your business. There’s an

engagement ring jeweler in Dallas that sells marriage proposal consulting to the

men who are buying engagement rings. What man wouldn’t like to find a creative

way to ask the most important, nerve-wracking question of his life and have an

expert guide him through the process? A simple related service could just be

delivery. Florists often make money with delivery services, could you? A gym

could sell outdoor boot camps, a running shoe store could sell a marathon training

course.

8

9


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SHAKE


Sell information with your products - Do you sell something that people

could use some training in learning how to use? If you sold high end women’s

scarves, you could write a guide of “101 Ways to Creatively Tie a Scarf,” and sell it

for $15. If you operated a tea or coffee house, could you sell a class on how to

learn about proper brewing techniques or how to explore varieties from around

the World? Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco (a grocery store) wrote a book called

“Eat Good Food: A Grocer's Guide to Shopping, Cooking & Creating Community

Through Food” that sells for $32.50. I’ve been trying to get an heirloom tomato

farmer to create a recipe book to sell. He sells to some of the finest San Francisco

Bay Area restaurants and his chef / customers would love to promote their recipes

and restaurants.

Displays - Sometimes if you want your customers to buy higher priced items, you

merely need to present it to them in a display. Did you know that at most grocery

stores, the items that sell the best are the ones that get stacked up on an end cap

display? Can you create a display in your store, or a display of your product to go

into other stores that will capture the attention of customers walking by? Heck,

even if you sell pastries to a coffee shop, I bet you could get the owner to stack

your items up nice and high if you give them a creative idea to work from. Then of

course, the owner will have to buy more product from you to keep up with

demand.

10

11

End cap display



SHAKE


Change menu board - Do you have a physical menu hanging inside your store?

If you do, you need to change it more often than you already are. Use it to

promote featured items. Give customers who are used to staring at the same old

message a reason to get disrupted and to take notice of items that can be cross-

sold or upsold. At Peet’s Coffee, I promoted adding flavored syrups to a latte and

guess what, we sold more flavored lattes. There’s a company called Yum Brands

which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. These businesses change their menus

ALL THE TIME because it changes behavior.

Staff training / contests - Giving your first line of sales people the training they

need to ask for an upsell or to offer a cross-sell is extremely important. For every

promotion I ever launched at Peet’s Coffee, at Cartridge World, at CocoaBella

Chocolates, I created a launch document that taught our sales people what was

being promoted, how to sell the benefits of the featured items and how to upsell

and cross-sell. If you don’t do much regular training, kick it off with a sales contest.

Find a way to track individual sales of featured products and reward the winners

with a gift certificate or dinner or larger than normal employee discount. Ongoing

sales training is critical to helping you shake shake shake your booty to growing

sales.

12

13


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RATTLE


“I walked forty-seven miles of barbed wire,

I got a cobra snake for a necktie

A brand new house on the road side,

and it's a-made out of rattlesnake hide

Got a band new chimney put on top,

and it's a-made out of human skull

Come on take a little walk with me baby, and

tell me who do you love?

Who do you love?”

-- George Thorogood

Sorry, but I had a heck of a time finding a familiar song that uses the word “rattle” in it. Hopefully

I’ll make up for it with a 6 minute version of Who Do You Love. :)

“Who do you love” is an apt way of thinking about customer loyalty. Does your customer think of

your business and only your business every time they want what you sell? If they do, then you’ve

achieved loyalty. While it’s not a perfect definition, I like to teach loyalty in terms of increasing

customer purchase frequency. The more times they buy from you, the more loyal they are.

Click to Listen


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ow8dUNFdgo


RATTLE


How do you get customers to return to you every time they want to buy what you

sell?

How do you become their preferred store / brand / vendor of choice?

Ultimately, the million dollar question is how do you get your existing customers to

love your business more than all of the alternatives she has to buy from?

Rewards are traditionally the most common answer, but rewards can take a variety of

forms. Great customer service also helps. But how is this defined?

I’d also like to propose a concept for you, as the business owner or manager to

consider and that is “Who do YOU love?” as your best customers. When you think

in these terms, you’ll want to create new products and solutions for your very, very

best customers. Loyalty works both ways, baby!

Let’s explore some examples of how to provide rewards and service that increase

purchase frequency.


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Promotions – This is about creating a planned and coordinated event meant to

sell a specific product or service for a limited time and that meets a seasonally

relevant consumer need. I like to explain a promotion as throwing a party for your

customers. You’ll schedule the dates, create a theme, send out invitations and offer

gifts (your promoted offer) to your guests of honor. As a program to increase

purchase frequency, bringing back a familiar but limited availability customer

favorite is a powerful tactic. McDonald’s does this with its McRib sandwich and

with Shamrock Shakes during St. Patrick’s day.

Rewards / VIP program - A formal program where you issue a card, collect

email addresses and birthdates, track spending and issue points in return for

offering benefits to your most active shoppers is a great way to show your love.

You can provide free product upon achieving specified point levels, you can invite

the best customers to special events or deals only available to them, and you can

stay in communication with them via email newsletters. Many of the service

providers that administer rewards card programs can let you enter the customer’s

phone number instead of presenting a card which lets customers avoid having to

carry “yet one more card.”

RATTLE

14

15


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Punch cards - Punch cards are a lower tech option to a rewards card program.

Typically you’d issue a paper card that gets punched each time a purchase is made

and the customer redeems the card after 8 or 10 purchases for a discount or free

item.

RATTLE

If you’re enjoying this book, would you share it

with your friends and followers? Thanks

16


Follow up with customers via email – After a customer makes a purchase

from you, why not send them an email that gives some helpful advice on how to

use what they just bought from you? If you’re not collecting email addresses from

all customers, then this will require you to start doing so. If you sold a bottle of

cabernet sauvignon, you could send an email the next day with three dinner

entrees that would pair well with the wine. Then a week later, ask if they enjoyed

the wine and suggest another varital that others who bought the same also enjoy.

It’s a step sequence of relationship building tips and advice sent via email. Derek

Halpern has an excellent blog post about how to use email, combined with a

loyalty program, to maximize repeat purchases and purchase frequency on his

Social Triggers blog. You can read it here.

17

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Charitable tie-ins - Does your business have a preferred charity that it supports?

Do you proactively promote this to your customers? You’ll often find that

customers will change their shopping behavior to buy from companies that

support charities they like. That’s exactly what General Mills does with Box Tops

For Education, and what programs like eScrip are that generate funds for school

programs. Also, if you do support a charity, ask them to promote your products to

their employees and donors. While this last point is technically helping increase

customer count rather than loyalty, it’s an important tactic to add to your plans.

RATTLE

20


Birthday offers – Whether part of your formal loyalty / VIP rewards program, or

a standalone option, this is a particularly strong option if you operate a restaurant,

because, let’s face it, who likes to eat alone? By giving customers a free meal on an

important day in their lives, you’ll probably pick up a group table that may have

gone elsewhere. One way to implement this is to collect birthdates during an

email newsletter sign up and send coupons just before the special day. Sometimes

just an acknowledgment works wonders. Southwest airlines merely sends a

birthday card (with no coupon or offer) to its rewards members.

Happy Hours – A classic tactic in expanding purchase frequency, bars have

enticed customers to stop in right after work (typically slow times of the day) for

years by offering free hors d'oeuvres, drink specials and live music.

19

18

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VIP events - I touched upon this in idea #15 with the rewards program, but if you

have a store, what if you opened your doors only to your best customers, by

invitation only, and poured them champagne, served them food, hired some music

and let them shop leisurely without the chaos of large crowds during the Holiday

shopping season? What if you invited an expert in your industry to teach, or serve

(a guest chocolate maker) your best customers? Could this encourage customers

to purchase more frequently in order to be on the “VIP Guest List?”

RATTLE

23

Free Delivery – I mentioned delivery as a related service you could charge for in

idea #9, but what if you offered delivery free of charge? One of the reasons your

customers may not be buying from you more frequently is that they’re not near

your business at all hours of the day. If you made it easier to get your products by

delivering to her home or office, would she buy from you more often?

22


Value-added premium – The one marketing program I regret not pushing

harder for was when I worked on Pine-Sol. Even if you’re a die-hard, pine scent

loving woman, who really enjoys cleaning the house? Pine-Sol had the tagline “the

smell of clean” and my idea was to offer a CD called “the Sounds of Clean” that

would have upbeat, rhythm and blues, shake your booty type music that could be

played while cleaning the house. The CD would have been sent free with proof of

purchases, making it a value-added premium. See, even 15 years ago I was thinking

of ways to combine music and marketing.

21

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RATTLE

Lay away – I grew up in a pretty poor family and I remember mom hauling me

and my brother down to Kmart (remember the blue light specials?) where she

would start Christmas shopping in October by using its layaway service. It’s

basically an installment plan and it helps customers who can’t always afford your

services to pay for them over time. Think of it this way, you’re helping to remove

one more barrier to purchase for your customers. Many people who sell

expensive online information products offer installment plans. And believe it or

not, it’s making a comeback at some major retailers, including Wal-Mart.

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Thank you letters – I know, you’re probably raising your eyebrow at this one, in

this day and age of email, texting and social media, but what could be more

authentic, more heart-felt and meaningful than you taking the time out of your

busy day to write a letter (yes, with a pen) or card and send it to your customers

thanking them for shopping with you? Who do you love?.

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RATTLE

A Note About Discounts I believe that discounts should only be offered in one of four situations:

1) If you need to get rid of seasonal inventory that you will otherwise have to throw away due to obsolescence;

2) As a cost of new customer acquisition;

3) To encourage a more lucrative sell via upselling or cross-selling;

4) As a reward to your highest value customers.

There may be exceptions to the rule, but these are the guidelines I try to live by

Temporary price reductions – also known as discounting. I’m not a fan of

discounting products except for when you have seasonal inventory that you really

need to sell (or else give it away), when you’re encouraging a more lucrative

exchange for you (via upselling and cross-selling), when you’re rewarding a high

value customer or when you’re acquiring a new customer. IMHO, discounts

offered to the masses are basically a confession that your prices were too high to

begin with. Instead of discounting, think of how to raise the value of your

products.

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Lowest price guarantee - Unless you’re Wal-Mart, or a category

leader with significant influence over every single one of your

suppliers, I would never recommend this idea. I just have it here

to see if you’re still paying attention.

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Bag stuffers – Bag stuffers are promotional materials that you place into

customer bags after they’ve made a purchase. You’re basically being proactive in

encouraging the next purchase. It could be to announce a new seasonal product

or line that’s coming out soon, or to announce an event at your store. Make sure

your sales staff explains what’s being promoted.

RATTLE

Flash sales – Flash sales originated from the ecommerce world in which the

company offers a larger than normal discount on a product for 24 hours or less.

Because it requires you to send the offer via email, this is mostly useful to target

your current customers and get them into the store one more time than usual.

Consider an offer that is an upsell even after the discount such as buy one, get 50%

off a second.

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Fortune cookie discounts – I know, I know, I JUST said I don’t believe in

offering discounts. Having said that, some of you are going to keep offering

discounts, and if so, you may of well do it in a creative way that gets your

customers talking about you. This idea requires you to fill fortune cookies with a

range of discounts, and you let the customer pick a cookie to reveal how much

they save. I strongly recommend you don’t give out cookies until the customer is

at the cash register ready to pay.

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ROLL


“It's been a long time since I rock-and-rolled

It's been a long time since I did the stroll

Ooh, let me get it back, let me get it back, let me get it back

mm-baby, where I come from

It's been a long time, been a long time

Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time”

-- Led Zeppelin

I’m a drummer and one of my drumming superheroes is John Bonham from Led Zeppelin. Not to

get too technical, but while he played in a hard rocking band, he actually played drums with a funky

(as in R&B, we got the FUNK) style. Wikipedia says he “was esteemed for his speed, power, fast

right foot, distinctive sound, and "feel" for the groove.”

What I love about his role in the song Rock and Roll is his drum introduction. It screams “wake

up” and “I’ve got something amazing I’m about to share with you.”

When it comes time to talking about attracting new customers, you’ve got to wake them up and

somehow convince them you have something amazing to share. If they already knew your product

was amazing, they’d already be a customer.

Click to Listen


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeJkDewhTEw


ROLL


*Guerrilla

Marketing The term “guerrilla

marketing” was coined

and defined by Jay

Conrad Levinson in his

book Guerrilla Marketing

and has come to

represent low-cost

unconventional

advertising or

promotional activities

that are typically local in

nature, and that rely on

time, energy and

imagination rather than a

big marketing budget

So how do you do this?

Sometimes it’s as simple as communicating your benefits to a wider group of people.

You can get the word out to more people either through outbound marketing

(advertising, public relations, sampling, events, for instance) or through inbound

marketing where potential customers find you based on the online content (blogging,

videos, eBooks, webinars, social media, for instance) you create and share.

Another way to wake up new customers to your offerings is to start being different.

I’ll share some ideas on how you can use guerrilla marketing* to be different and to

stand out.

Still another way is to partner with other companies and to expand distribution to

sell your product in new channels, or in new ways.

The goals here are to get your product and your message out in new and different

ways. If you don’t, you might just be finding yourself having a “lonely, lonely, lonely,

lonely, lonely time.” And that’s the furthest thing we want for you and your business.

Let’s get the ball rolling.




New products - I talked about new products in idea #6 as it relates to selling

your existing customers something new, or as a way to take price increases. This

variation would have you create new products for a group of people who are not

currently shopping from you. A classic example is when McDonald’s added chicken

sandwiches to its menu when before it only sold hamburgers. Another example is

when Subway started selling breakfast items. Both of these were meant to attract

a new customer into their restaurants.

Advertise – traditional media – Not all budgets can afford it, but advertising

via television, radio, magazines or newspapers is a good way to expand your

message to a wider target market. As with all marketing communications, focus

your message on delivering a clear benefits to your target customer.

ROLL

Advertise – online – Google AdWords, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads are all ways

to deliver your advertising to a broader audience. Be sure that you set up split

tests of different messages and calls to action to determine which work more

effectively and always refine your ads to the best performing.

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Direct mail - Direct mail has often been considered “junk mail” by many

recipients, but many a financial kingdom has been built on this practice. Buy a mail

list (or build your own if you have the time) and send an offer they can’t refuse. At

CocoaBella Chocolates, I acquired two sizeable business accounts who purchased

in excess of $7,000 of chocolates to send as client holiday gifts from an unsolicited

mailing with a list I built through internet searches. These new customers easily

generated a high Return-on-Investment.

ValPak – Valpak is a bundled direct mail marketing service that sends multiple

flyers or inserts to households. Consumers know that each blue envelope will

contain lots of coupons and it can be a more affordable way of distributing your

offer than with your own standalone mailing. As with most coupon offers, the risk

is that existing customers use the coupon which is a subsidized discount you

wouldn’t have had to make (since they are already a customer).

ROLL

New distribution channels – Can you sell your products through additional

retailers? Can you add online sales to what is currently only brick-and-mortar?

Can you find a vacant space and create a short term pop-up store? If you

currently only sell through grocery channels, can you create a food service option

that major suppliers like Sysco can distribute to restaurants and commissaries?

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Private label - Do you make a product that another company wants to sell

under its own brand? Private labeling your product may bring you lower margins,

but you don’t have the sales and marketing expenses associated with developing

the business. Also, if you have excess production capacity, it could add significantly

to your bottom line.

Publish remarkable online content – There’s a phrase going around marketing

that all companies need to start acting like a publisher. You may have heard the

phrase “Content Is King.” Whether you deliver it through blog postings, white

papers, eBooks, infographics, videos, or industry charts, if you can help prospects

solve their problems or find answers to their questions, you’ll develop trust and

authority with them that you can turn into sales. This is true whether you sell B2B,

at retail, or wholesale. The bottom line is that consumers increasingly look to

their search engines to solve problems and find solutions before buying, and having

online content that does this will get you found.

ROLL

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Teach – Instead of thinking like a publisher, I personally believe there’s more

power in thinking like a teacher. Whether you teach how to use your products

more effectively, how to solve problems, or how to save money, by creating online

classes, autoresponder* courses, or hold in-store seminars or webinars, people

who learn from you are more likely to buy from you. One of my favorite

autoresponder training courses was offered by The Republic of Tea which delivered

6 lessons on tea.

Public Relations – A well written and well timed press release sent to magazine

and newspaper editors can bring your brand into the homes of thousands if it’s

picked up. If you’re writing the release yourself, always remember that you’re

helping writers and editors to do their jobs which is to create stories their readers

want to read. They’re job is not necessarily to publicize your business. One great

tip is to pitch a trend or human interest story in which your brand plays a role and

bring the story to life.

ROLL

*Autoresponders

Autoresponders are a series of emails that are sent to

subscribers over a period of time. They are effective means of

delivering training on a subject without being a “hard sell.”

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Sampling - If you have a food or beverage product, there are lots of ways for you

to let prospects try your product. Many grocery stores will let you set up a table

and sample to their customers. If you have a retail store, get out on the sidewalk

and offer samples to passersby. You could hire a street team to take your product

to outlying locations such as college campuses. Or be creative and call a

neighborhood business office and tell them they’ve been selected as the business

of the week and that you’d like to bring by samples for their employees to enjoy in

their break room.

ROLL

Cash mobs – A cash mob is an organized group of people who join together to

shop at a specific business, often a struggling locally owned business, on a specific

day. An alternate version, led by organizations such as Carrotmob, organizes people

to shop at a store to help them make socially responsible changes to the business.

Getting sponsored by a cash mob group may take some lobbying on your part, but

when they come together, they are likely to bring you new sales and often media

coverage.

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Grow email list - Make it as easy as possible for new visitors to your website to

sign up for your email news. Have clearly visible email sign up forms in your store

and near your cash register and actively encourage customers to sign up. If you’re

a service business, create a useful guide, report, eBook or other content that you

offer in exchange for an email address. If you blog, end your posts by asking

readers to sign up to your list. Rubio’s Restaurant in San Diego offers a coupon

for a free taco when people sign up.

ROLL

Street teams – Hire a group of people, dress them in hats and t-shirts with your

business name on them, and send them out to locations where there are lots of

“starving people”* to pass out flyers, coupons or samples.

*Starving People

Gary Halbert was a famed direct response copywriter who once posed a question to a

copywriting class that asked: "If you and I both owned a hamburger stand and we were in a

contest to see who could sell the most hamburgers, what advantages would you most like to have

on your side to help you win?“ Some of the students say they would like to have the advantage of

having superior meat from which to make their burgers. Others say they want sesame seed buns.

Others mention location. Someone usually wants to be able to offer the lowest prices. In

response, Gary says “"The only advantage I want is A Starving Crowd!"

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Picket yourself - Hire a group of people, dress them in hats and t-shirts with

your business name on them, and send them out to locations where there are lots

of “hungry people” to pass out flyers, coupons or samples.

ROLL

Offer consultations and advice – This is a tried and true tactic for consultants

but it can also be used for service businesses and to a lesser degree, for product

based businesses. A hair salon in Cambridge, MA offers in-home styling

consultations to prospects via skype. If you monitor twitter for key words in your

category, often people are asking for advice and you can provide it.

Host workshops, events, meetings, private parties – If you have the space to

accommodate groups, host workshops and events at your store or offices.

Publicize to your best customers or your neighborhood groups that you have

space for them to use for meetings. If you’re in the food business, let customers

know you can accommodate private parties. Getting groups of people into your

store is sure to include prospects.

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Give lotto tickets away with purchase - When your state lottery jackpot

reaches the size where media coverage starts to happen, buy 50-100 $1 tickets and

offer to give one away with each purchase. Contact the media and let them know

you’re supporting “lotto fever” and people may go out of their way to buy from

you rather than from their regular business.

ROLL

Affiliate sales – Affiliate sales is a term more common in the online world where

a website sells a product from another site in exchange for a cut of the sales. But

it can also work in the offline world. Can you get the concierges from local hotels

to refer business to you (for a commission)? If you have products suited as gifts,

could you partner with a florist to refer business to each other? What other

businesses in your area can you trade referrals for as a “preferred” partner? If you

have a consulting business, offer a referral 10% of the sales you generate from the

new client forever.

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Promotions – This is the same tactic as #14, but it’s offering a product to new

customers rather than existing customers. One of my favorite examples of this is

by the Oregon Urology Institute who sells vasectomies to men during the NCAA

basketball tournament. “Vas Madness” encourages men to get a vasectomy in

March so they can time their recovery to stay on the sofa and watch the first two

rounds of the tournament. Brilliant idea and it gets free media coverage every

year.

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Group discounts – Do you offer products or services that customers can

persuade others to take advantage of? Tell your best customers that you will

create a group special or discount if they bring in their co-workers, neighbors or

friends. You could own a coffee shop and offer the discount if 3 or more

employees from neighboring businesses come in together for a coffee break. Or a

fitness boot camp could offer a group rate to these same employees if 5 or more

sign up together.

ROLL

Sweepstakes, contests – Create a high value prize that your target customer

would value to give them an incentive to visit your store to sign up. Peet’s Coffee

used to offer a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area and a private cupping with its

coffee bean buyer and a tour of its roasting facilities. Please note that there are

laws you must follow for most sweepstakes. Another idea is to have a photo

contest of people using your product. With platforms such as Instagram and

Pinterest, consumer interest in photography is at an all time high and you may be

able to get these hobbyists to contribute to portraying your products.

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Co-marketing – If you wholesale, create a program whereby your retail

accounts feature your product. At Clorox, I created a program with Winn-Dixie in

Florida to create direct mail pieces FROM Winn-Dixie to promote Clorox cleaning

products to drive people into the store. In return for Clorox paying for the

mailings, Winn-Dixie built displays of the product. We sold more cases of product

to Winn-Dixie than ever before, Winn-Dixie sold more units than ever before, and

both companies benefitted from the partnership.

ROLL

Sponsor an event – Community events such as running events, street fairs,

parades, outdoor festivals and concerts are always looking for sponsors. You’ll

likely get media publicity, program and event signage and a booth to feature,

demonstrate or sample your products. At Peet’s Coffee, I sponsored a BART Rider

Appreciation Day and gave out $2 gift cards to 10,000 transit riders at San

Francisco stations. We had almost 20% redemption (and lines out the door) the

day of the event.

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ENCORE

If you’ve gotten to this page, I want to thank you sincerely for reading my ideas.

Also, let me know if you want to learn more about any of the ideas I have. I’ll elaborate on them

and post them to my blog, or offer some training on them. We’re all in this challenge of building

our businesses, yours and mine, together. Let me know how I can help you, and in doing so, you

will help me.

Lastly, if you think I could help you create sales growth programs for your business, call me or email

me at gary at garyasanchez dot com.

“So let's dance, this last dance

Let's dance, this last dance

Let's dance' this last dance tonight”

-- Donna Summer

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PHOTO CREDITS


Photo by Johnny Jet Photo by John Gullo Photo by Anirudh Koul

Photo by philozei Photo by lschmoopie


http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyjet/2711776054/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgullo/4477781277/in/set-72157616934660435

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgullo/4477781277/in/set-72157616934660435

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anirudhkoul/3958561711/



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http://open.salon.com/blog/lschmoopie/2011/01/08/bill_graham_remembered


Business

54 ways to increase sales like a rock star